Registration for 27th Mt. Kinabalu International Climbathon is now open

If you have been waiting to run in the world’s toughest mountain race, wait no more as they have opened the registration for the event. This 27th edition of the race has a new format, after last year’s edition which uses a new route that was claimed “too easy” for some of the international athletes who ran in the event.

Last year’s edition doesn’t require the runners to reach Low’s Peak. The highest point for the run is only at Layang-Layang Hut, halfway up the mountain. Even though the distance of the run was extended another couple of kilometers, it doesn’t make the run anymore difficult, as the last remaining couple of kilometers was a downhill pavement road surface. It was too easy as claimed by Killian Jornet, when he compared it with UTMB. Haha.

Because of last year’s climbathon feedback, they now opened this year’s edition with a new format, in which they categorize it for elite and non-elite runners. Elite runners (there are few certain criteria that they have rule out) will run Summit Race category – up the mountain to Low’s Peak and come down via Mesilau Trail and end at Kundasang town. That will torture them through 33km of layers of Kinabalu’s unique mountain forest and barren rockface.

Non-elite runners will run last year’s trail and now it is called Adventure Race. The Adventure Race will make runners only up to Layang-Layang Hut and down to Mesilau Trail. The trail is shorter 11km and was claimed too easy for elite runners. That is why the organizer has to make it really hard for them with the Summit Race.

Anyway, this is my first climbathon. I climbed Mount Kinabalu 5 times, but it’s just a normal hike, not a race like this. From now to the date of the race, I will do few more training on the mountain. Maybe I will do the climb in one day.